DetectingWales.com

                         Well with the BBC weather man predicting dry weather for the weekend and the first low tide scheduled for just after 1500 hrs; I'm contemplating breaking out the Safari and the Nel BIG coil for a few hours on Saturday morning, but can't make up my mind as to which beach to work. Should it be Talacre, Rhyl, or Kinmel Bay? 

                          Anyone else working the beaches of North East Wales this weekend?


                         

                         

Kinmel bay......get them little gold rings !!!!....good hunting me old mate....👍

I am another considering which beach to go stay home and do Porrtcawl/Barry or go to West Wales and do Aberporth/Newquay  ???

Newquay West Wales is done regularly by a chap from Bargoed who probably has a holiday home in the area.  I was told this by one of the locals only last weekend whilst visiting my son who lives near Aberystwyth.  Cheers.  Tom.

good luck wherever you decide to go

Thanks for that roughneck

Went to Aberporth in the end but really sanded in and few signals . Found a little cut which yielded £2.50 but that was it.

                                         I eventually bit the bullet and plumped for Talacre; whilst planning to do Rhyl this Sunday and try Kinmel Bay next week. Slowly getting back into the swing of things. For the first time in over six years, I have found my self dreaming about metal detecting. Must be suffering withdrawal symptoms.

                                         I put in about four hours on the sands and found that the sand scoop was of great assistance in easing the stress on my lower back and hips. I also managed to get some help from the bungee and the Safari + Big Nel coil didn't wear me down too much.

                                        Plenty of WWII scrap to sift through and slide over but found a hot spot containing untold fifty cal shattered copper jackets and assume that the area is something of a sand trap and it may well contain coins also. Made a mental note of the location and will return at a later date. Moved up the beach and swung back west, knowing full well that I was moving into territory that is heavily infested with .303 and .30 projectiles. Based on past experience of the area, I was able to winkle out a number of decimal and pre-decimal coins, along with what looks to be a ladies eternity ring but some cleaning of the ring will be required before I can correctly id it.

                                        I will try and post some pics tomorrow and would appreciate any cleaning advice that you folks may give me.

                                         

Looking forward to seeing your pictures Chris.its great to hear that your out and about ,
Gotta start getting out ........it's the motivation and now the lack of permissions that thwart me,but good on ya ...👍

Here ya go Chris...................

                                              it came out o the sand looking pretty grim and coated with grey grit. A gentle stroke of the thumb had some of the grit falling away to reveal a glint of gold running around the edges of the rim but leaving a thick coating of grey, carborundum like material, both inside and outside of the ring.
I suspect that it is made from two different metals, that have responded differently to many years being locked in the sands.

                                              Any ideas as to what the cruddy looking metal may be, and the best way to clean it. I am goint to try warm soapy water in an ultra-sound bath.

Hi ya Chris,very nice photos,gotta say it does appear to be very "goldish" and also looks as though it has a "silverish" band running round the centre of it(white gold,or even platinum perhaps.... certainly wish you all the luck with it.
With regards to cleaning,if it is valuable and it were my find I would let it steep in some warm soapy water,changing the water on a regular basis and lett the "crud"dicepate in a natural Janet,after all it got stuck on the ring naturally,so let nature remove naturally.
Great pictures as well Chris..👍
And once again,many thanks for keeping to your word and posting it up..👍

Isn't Mother Nature amazing, the way she claims back what was hers in the first place.
Bit by bit that ring was being reclaimed and would eventually become part of a rock.
Well found Chris. I think that's a glint of gold you can see. What the stones are I wouldn't like to guess at the present. You could try soaking it in a little bi-carb and warm water. Change it at Dayley intervals and be patient.

Hi Val,
           what ever it is that has been deposited onto the ring, it's rock hard and persists in sticking to the ring like chrome to a fitting. Totally unresponsive to the old spit n foil trick; with no smell and no exothermic reaction. Hours in the ultrasound bath has moved a wee bit o rubbish off it. Soaking in bicarb in a foil lined tub........no response.

           Being male and being devoid of patience, I popped it back into the sonic bath with a warm bicarb mix and now we are moving a wee bit faster and seeing some movement; with small gas bubbles dancing around the dark metallic material. Going to give it an hour or so and then remove it from the bath and follow your gentler, more patient, directions. ;)

I don't think the silver test would work on gold so inconclusive.
If it were anything other than a possible nice ring I'd have said a hammer would work  ;D

Hi Chris,justva thought,do you know any jewellers well enough to perhaps have an idea of how to clean the ring ?.....or....have a word with your local museum,even better if they have a conservator..after all who knows what Is lying beneath !!!...good luck..👍

                                   Well; I'm convinced that the primary metal is gold and thought that the other metal holding the stones may have been silver and that is why I thought that the old foil and spittle test may have shown something up. The dark deposit is rock hard and only appears ready to loosen it's grip on the ring when immersed in a bath of bicarbonate of soda with the ultra sound turned on. At present, I keep soaking it in bicarb for twenty four hours and then rinsing it before immersing in a fresh batch.

                                  It's hard to tell, but I'm beginning to think that the gold will be cut in a filigreed pattern beneath the carborundum like material. It is also beginning to look as though some of the stones are going to be missing from the ring's settings.

                                  I know a pawn broker / jeweller, who took the kinks out of a silver ring that I found some time ago; perhaps he will be able to shed some light on what the material may be and how best to deal with it.

                                  As an aside..............my ultrasound bath will only run for several minutes at a time and I am unable to set it for longer periods. Perhaps that is a good thing?  ::)   

If that is gold there's a good chance the stones are diamonds and they are never set in silver but platinum, sometimes white gold.  Be a shame if some are missing but to be expected from the beach.
Your jeweller man may have some ideas on cleaning. Worth asking.
Looking good Chris.

Hi ,
I have spent many years beach detecting and found a number of similar rings to yours and they were nearly all base metal rings with gold plating or 9ct rings that had been in the sand for many years and the salt had reacted with the other metal in the ring. I hope I am wrong but would be interested to hear the results.

                                               Pat.  ;) ;)

             The constant soaking in sodacarb is very very slowly starting to better show the structure of the ring and some of the hollow recesses where the stones would have been set. It is turning out to be a most interesting exercise in cleaning. Can't yet see any hall markings on the inner section but will probably pop it into the sonic bath once we return home on Sunday.

              Going to return to the same section of beach tomorrow and see if the wedding and engagement rings may be there.  ;)

              Had the grandchildren with us in the caravan for the last couple of days and it will be nice to escape to Talacre in the morning. Drove past Home & Bargain (Rhyl) earlier this evening and saw the carpark roped off with blue and white police tape, over a dozen police vehicles spread out there, and a long line of officers combing the area. Turns out that a guy was stabbed to death there at about 1930 hrs last night. Glad we were back in the van by then and the kids are back home with their mum now. 

             Stay safe, stay well, and happy hunting

                            Chris

                 Yesterday's revisit to Talacre turned up zilch jewellery but I came away with £1.05p in decimal coins, a 1947 George VI sixpence, and plenty of WWII scrap. Back home later today and will chuck the ring back in the ultrasound bath with some sodacarb.  ::)

Hi Pat,
           called in for a chat with my friendly gold buyer and she confirmed that the yellow metal is in fact "gold" but assumed that the white metal under the black Carborundum type material may be silver and if so they would not be interested in buying the ring. They buy only gold "or" silver!

          She instructed me to complete the present process of removing the gritty material and return for her to do a second assessment on the ring. Once I have completed the cleaning process I'm going to hand it in at a police station and see how their lost and found process works.

Chris :)

Many thanks for the update Chris,seems that you were right to persist in your cleaning endeavours....mind you,its a great shame that it's not platinum in with the gold.
Well done on the honesty bit,a bit rare these days..👏👏👏👏👏.....👍.....👈

Hi Chris,
              once I get all the crud off the white metal we will be able to asses what it is; silver, white gold, or platinum. I have had gold rings off Talacre and I have had silver rings off Talacre but I have never had a ring with the coating of carborundum like gritty material that coated the white metal section of this ring.  I'm guessing that being a bi-metal ring it may have produced some sort of electrostatic field which when whetted with salt water then attracted opposite charged particles from it's surroundings.

                                    What I thought to be a white metal section is starting to take on a very pale appearance and is looking more like bone or ivory. It may, of course, be carbonate deposits that will come off with an acid wash.

                                           Sure enough, the bone like appearance had been brought on by carbonate deposits from the wash and this, perhaps, enplanes a slowing down in the cleaning process. A quick acid wash did the trick!

Hey Chris,what a difference !!!... that's what tenacity of purpose does .. LOL
Well done,so,do you think you will be able to get it back to near original,i was going to say until I saw the latest pictures hat it may have been burned at some time...woops sorry!!.. Halloween's now over....lol...👍

That thought did pass my mind but my Mrs recons that it would have melted.   :o

It's coming along nicely.

I must admit that I'd have put it in acid over night by now :) - I'm just too impatient!

                        With the process considerably slowing down now, I am sorely tempted to go for a stronger acid bath; rather than vinegar, lemon juice or coke. Which acid would "you" use?

I currently use one of two acids - Jeweller's pickling (a buffered sulphuric acid), or phosphoric acid (comes as 86%, but I dilute it).

In the past I have also used nitric acid and formic acid (the last apparently used by museums).

Essentially you need to choose something that will create a soluble product from what you are etching, so it is possible you might have to try a few things. Mind you for what I etch (usually silvers or bronzes) then those two acids cover most things, although every so often I come across hard concretions that just don't seem to shift, except by mechanical means. I also keep a stock of acetone for any organics / lacquers which would prevent the acid from doing its job.

Hope this helps.

regards

Roland

                                   And the next question is....................where do you obtain your acids from? When I used to work in the chemical industry  I could have taken the ring to work and given it an acid wash in any one of those acids during the shift. With access to silver nitrate and Hcl we could even silver up old copper coins. ;)

Just had a peep on ebay; loads of acids for sale on there.

Hi Chris,
That makes sense about the metal being silver as it always goes black in the salt water, I found so many over the years that I used to give up in the end and not bother with them so I hope you are successful in getting to the bottom of it.
                        Cheers

                                             Pat ;) ;)

                          This is a strange one for my regular beach Pat. It's not just the blackness but the grit like material that has coated the central section of the ring that has me puzzled. The gold section shone through within moments of recovering the ring but the carborundum like material is sticking like poo to a blanket! Other silver finds off the same beach have been blackened by silver sulfates but have responded well to spit n foil.

                          I thought silver, white gold, or possibly platinum may be the central section of the ring but then I wondered if rose gold, with it's copper content, may react differently to other materials. What ever it is, I'm in it for the long haul!  ;)

                         Sadly, most of the stones have long since gone but there are still a couple left in place. I wonder if it was a dress, eternity, or perhaps wedding ring?

                                                Chris :)

Hi Chris,
I know exactly what you mean about the crud and I always assumed it meant that it had been buried for a very long time in the sand. Even 9ct rings in the sand for a very long time would break up and fall to pieces if you tried to clean them.

                            Pat  ;) ;)

As you've found, on eBay you can get most things. I used to get some chemicals from my father, as he was a chemistry lecturer, but now eBay is the main source - I got the Jeweller's picking from Kernowcraft (I think that's what they are called).

My version of the spit and foil cleaning method uses washing soda, which comes in 1kg packets from Asda for 79p and lasts for ages, that's always good for sulphides, although if you want to clean bronzes and coppers apparently using washing powder works better.

The reason your stuff has stuck hard on to the metal is that whatever salt has been created by corrosion products isn't being touched by your current cleaning methods - so it is either too stable or insoluble, but I'm sure you will have it gleaming soon enough. I've never had any practice on any precious metal ring as I've never found one detecting :)

Try the Beach Roland !! Plenty available with the right machines,
.
                                                    Pat.   ;) ;)

Latest update....................

                                             tried all sorts to clean the gritty material from the central section of the ring but to no avail. Even had it pickling in hydrochloric acid for twenty-four hours but never a glimmer of the carborundum like material giving up it's tight grip on the central section of the ring. Giving up, I gently scraped it off with a fine blade.  :o

                                             Most of the original stones are missing but perhaps my gold buyer can now ascertain what the silver/white metal may be!


   

That is the weirdest thing I've ever seen. What is that 'stuff' the stones are sitting in. Has it oozed through from the inside and pushed the stones out of thier settings.
Will be interesting to hear what your jeweller friend has to say about it.

Hi  Chris, I have handled many of these rings over the years and they have always been 9ct & silver. The outside bands being 9ct and the centre part of the ring being silver, You should find a stamp to that effect in the centre of the ring if you manage to clean off the crud,. All the ones I've handled the stones were just paste.

                         Just can't find any hall marks or markings on the ring at-all but will try my local gold buyer again and see if they can determine what the white metal is. They will buy items made of gold and items made of silver but express no interests in items of mixed metal construction.